1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small-sized marine craft for use in marine sports or for leisure purposes, which is suited for maneuvering in a sea area near the shore under the control of a rider on the stern portion who sits or stands on the stern portion and grips a steering handle bar positioned from the bow portion. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a novel construction for mounting a fuel tank in a marine craft of the type mentioned above.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a small-sized marine craft of the kind described has an engine mounted in an engine room formed in the bow portion of the shell and a propulsion means provided at the stern portion of the same. The rider stands up or sits on a deck portion formed on the shell to the rear of the engine room and grips the steering handle bar on the bow portion of the shell. The shell has a breadth which is substantially equal to or slightly greater than the shoulder breadth of a rider.
The propulsion means may be a propeller or a pumped water jet. Where a pumped water jet is used, the marine craft can be steered by changing the direction of the jet.
This type of marine craft is generally light in weight and has an excellent running performance. For instance, it can run at a considerably high speed of 50 km/h or so. Therefore, it is desirable that the shell as a whole is made compact through an efficient use of the space in the shell while maintaining a good balance in the port and starboard directions, as well as in the fore and aft directions.
In the conventional marine crafts of the type described, the fuel tank is mounted together with an engine and other auxiliary machines in an engine room formed in a bow portion of the shell. This in turn requires a large volume of the engine room and makes it difficult to realize a compact construction for the shell as a whole. In addition, the fuel tank imposes a considerably heavy weight, e.g. about 10 kg when filled up with fuel, so that the bow portion of the marine craft is unfavorably burdened with a considerable weight such as to increase a tendency for the bow to submerge, particularly when the marine craft is running at a low speed. In addition, since the bow portion of the marine craft of this type pitches up and down more vigorously than the stern portion, the fuel in the fuel tank waves severely thus causing various unfavourable effects.